Attacking the Cancer of Anti-American Liberalism

Most conservatives who have taken a look at what is being taught about American history and values in our high schools and colleges are well aware of the horrendous brainwashing that is going on to teach our kids to hate America. I first encountered this as a college professor myself, amazingly at a Catholic college you would think would be espousing traditional American values. This was not the fault of that particular college, however, it was just that the professors they hired were products of Vietnam era education where something went so terribly wrong in our entire educational system, and what we have now is a cancer that has so embedded itself and has become so widespread it is almost unassailable.

The kind of thing I am talking about is what kids are taught about the issue of slavery, for example. Slavery is a blight on our history; there is no doubt about that, but most American kids are taught only of its evils and the fortunes some Americans made in transporting, trading and employing slaves. They are not being taught that slavery has been practiced in every society throughout history, that it was a universal practice in the time period involved, and that slavery is still practiced in some areas of the world even today. That American and western culture was the first culture in 5000 years to recognize the evils of slavery and then to ban it is not taught, and that America decimated an entire generation of its young men to end the practice is glossed over.

There are many other aspects of our history where a balanced view showing that many times a nation has to choose the lesser of two evils is not presented to our children – only the worst possible interpretation is given on such things as: the use of atomic weapons against Japan, siding with Saddam Hussein against Iran, supporting certain dictatorships who also opposed the Soviet Union, the more recent decision to plant democracy in the middle of the Gulf area, etc.

When you try to understand the anti-Americanism of some liberals, who go far beyond just disagreeing with a particular policy, but who defame and lie about their opponents, misstate their positions, obstruct our military in performing its duty to defend us and advance our interests, curse military widows at funerals, etc., you have to realize what has been taught to these individuals by their public school and college teachers – to hate America.

I’ve been trying for most of my adult life to counter this philosophy, which is often existential in its nature, for long before there were websites like this one. What is bothering me in particular this morning is the feeling that 99% of my readers essentially agree with what I am saying and basically get confirmation of their views by reading my columns, whereas what I would rather be doing is drip, drip, dripping a different point of view on those who have been brainwashed by their distorted education. The recent exposing of the Valerie Plame-Joseph Wilson cabal, which attempted to ruin the reputations of so many good people with this fabric of lies, and the attempts right now of former Clinton administration officials and by Congressional Democrats to get ABC to censor their 9/11 special have particularly gotten to me today.

I am wondering this morning if there really is any effective way to counter and, hopefully, start to reverse the process of this cancer before my great country falls into the dust of history as has virtually all other great civilizations before us.

I especially felt this way as I read the following article, excerpted here, that appeared this morning:

Rocky Mountain News
Rosen: Liberals fly their colors
September 8, 2006

“Just recently, there was another flag flap, this time at Carmody Middle School in Jefferson County. Eric Hamlin, a geography teacher, gave equal prominence in his classroom to the flags of the United States, Mexico, China and the United Nations. Understandably more sensitive to Colorado law in the wake of the North High incident, administrators at Carmody instructed Hamlin to remove the foreign flags. He refused and was suspended for insubordination. After a few days, a compromise was reached, all was forgiven and permission was granted to display the foreign flags on a "temporary" basis as a learning tool, consistent with a specified exception in the state statute.

Although he was invited to return, Hamlin has since asked to be reassigned to another school. The controversy quickly faded, but there's much to be learned from this episode, which raises some bigger policy questions.

It's not about banning foreign flags. Under the law they can be conditionally displayed. But Hamlin is a microcosm, the product of an educratic mind-set with a decidedly liberal political and social agenda that pervades our public schools.

He said he was concerned that by giving special treatment to the U.S. flag, "we're sending the message that America is No. 1, everything else is below that." Of course we are! Hamlin might disapprove, but I suspect most Americans want precisely that message to be sent in our government schools.

Hamlin said displaying the flags of other nations promotes "tolerance," one of the themes of his course. "The flags should be able to celebrate diversity," he added. This is a fashionable term in educratic circles these days, a first cousin to "cultural relativism" and "moral equivalence."

Perhaps you remember a recent controversy involving another geography teacher, Jay Bennish, who subjected his Overland High School students to a tirade attacking President Bush, America's sordid past and our capitalist economic system. All this in a geography class, mind you. Toleration - and nonjudgmentalism, apparently - is reserved only for other nations. It's impolite to speak harshly of brutal regimes like North Korea, Cuba and Iran, but America is fair game.

We've had this debate before over the treatment of patriotism in our schools. Patriotism: love of country - our country. That doesn't mean blind obeisance. You can teach about our misdeeds without obsessing about them. The point is: Americans have so much more about which to be proud than ashamed. And that's exactly how it ought to be presented in our schools…” Mike Rosen

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